Waithe and Aziz Ansari took home the statuette at the 2017 Emmys for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the "Thanksgiving" episode in the second season of Netflix's Master of None. Waithe began her breathless acceptance speech with, "Let me reclaim my time, give me a second." She continued by thanking Master of None cocreators Ansari and Alan Yang—as well as her mom, whom she said inspired the episode. Waithe then gave a shoutout to her girlfriend, saying, "I love you more than life itself."

Waith concluded her speech with an important message for the LGBT community: "My LGBTQIA family, I see each and every one of you. The things that make us different, those are our superpowers...because the world would not be as beautiful as it is if we weren't in it."

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times last month, Waithe shared how her own coming-out story had influenced the winning episode, which portrays her character Denise's struggle to come out to her family over the course of several years.
"I had survived that thing that I was so afraid of," Waithe said.

Countless stars—like Issa Rae and Ellen DeGeneres—turned to Twitter to congratulate Waithe and Ansari on the historic win.